My prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,315,348 and 4,299,012 described a so-called "Stepless" clamp designed for use with relatively thin-walled, relatively hard plastic materials. These prior art clamps have been installed in various applications, the primary use being a leakage-proof tightening of axle boots made from "Hytrell" and similar materials and used in connection with constant velocity joints in the automotive industry. These prior art clamps proved commercially immensely successful as evidenced by sales running into hundreds of millions of such clamps.
Though the use of thermoplastic materials for the previously mentioned applications has increased over the last decade, especially in connection with OEM applications, the uses of materials with a lower Shore hardness such as neoprene and silicon still play a major role in constant velocity (CV) seals, as for example, in the after-market. Furthermore, technological advancements in the formulation of the compounds and the molding techniques of such thermoplastic materials have resulted in more malleable compositions so that the stepless feature does not represent an absolute requisite for all constant velocity applications.
Additionally, intense cost reduction programs by the major automotive manufacturers have resulted in the necessity to provide a product that is more cost-effective than the prior art clamps with the "Stepless" feature, yet is completely satisfactory for CV applications with the soft axle boot materials.